Saving Seafood

Sysco tightens seafood sustainability policy to require more MSC- and ASC-certified seafood

January 14, 2021 — Foodservice distributor Sysco will significantly increase its purchases of certified responsible seafood by 2025, as part of an enhanced commitment with its partner, World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

The Houston, Texas, U.S.A.-based distributor will also expand its current responsible sourcing program for its U.S. broadline business to include sourcing for its specialty and Canadian broadline business, Sysco said in a press release. It is adding new commitments to prohibit the sale of endangered species, advance its traceability work, and help address deforestation.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

First vessel attains GSA’s Responsible Fishing Vessel Standard

January 14, 2021 — The Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Global Seafood Assurances (GSA) venture – launched in 2018 – has had its first vessel reach its Responsible Fishing Vessel Standard (RFVS).

The Antarctic Discovery, which belongs to Australian Longline Fishing, is a longliner operating in a Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)-certified fishery for Patagonian and Antarctic toothfish. The vessel, which is 56-meters long and carries a crew of between 20 to 25 people – plus two observers – was awarded the RFVS certificate by Lloyds Register, the GSA announced.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Latest F3 challenge offers USD 300,000 in prizes for aquaculture feed innovators

January 13, 2021 — The F3 Challenge – Carnivore Edition, designed to accelerate the development of fishmeal and fish oil substitutes in aquaculture feed, has officially started, with a USD 100,000 (EUR 82,193) prize available to the winner of each of three categories.

The F3 Challenge, which stands for “fish-free feed,”  launched in November 2015 to encourage the innovation of alternative protein sources for aquaculture fish-feeds. The latest challenge targets three categories – salmonids, shrimp, and other carnivorous species – with the prize awarded to the team that uses the greatest portion of F3 feed in the category at the conclusion of the challenge’s sales period.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Researchers offer approaches for the sustainable expansion of the U.S. seafood industry

January 8, 2021 — The “Executive Order on Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth,” issued by the Trump administration in May 2020, lays out a plan to expand the U.S. seafood industry, especially aquaculture, and enhance American seafood competitiveness in the global market.

The goals of the directive are focused largely on growth and expansion of the industry, which includes wild-caught fisheries and farm-raised products, as well as recreation, processing and other industries that rely on fishing.

“The seafood industry in general is worth about $200 billion and accounts for 2 million jobs in the United States,” said Halley E. Froehlich, a professor of fisheries and aquaculture at UC Santa Barbara, who with her colleagues finds that the executive order “ends up being a complicated and opaque ask,” given the complexity of the seafood industry and the headwinds it has been experiencing of late.

“We started having some deep conversations about policy implications and what they meant relative to some massive disruptions,” she said.

Read the full story at PHYS.org

Cooke Aquaculture gets key permits for steelhead transition in Washington

January 7, 2021 — Washington’s Department of Ecology has revised four water quality permits to Cooke Aquaculture to farm steelhead in net-pens it formerly used to raise Atlantic salmon.

Cooke had already received approval from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, though conservation groups have sued to block their issuance. The facilities are located near Bainbridge Island and La Conner, and are now permitted for steelhead, also known as rainbow trout.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MarinTrust launches new verification tool for fishmeal plants

January 7, 2021 — A new verification tool from MarinTrust, the global marine ingredient standard for responsible supply (formerly IFFO RS), aims to help ensure value chain traceability via enhancing the recognition between Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and MarinTrust standards.

The tool offers clarity regarding the “requirements for all fishmeal plants claiming to be receiving MSC certified materials with the intention of using this for MarinTrust recognition,” the organization said in a press release.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Norway’s seafood exporters have near-record year despite COVID challenges

January 6, 2021 — Despite the ongoing challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Norwegian seafood exporters managed to have a near-record year of sales.

Norway exported 2.7 million metric tons (MT) of seafood products worth NOK 105.7 billion (USD 12.6 billion, EUR 10.2 billion) last year, the second-highest trade value ever achieved by the Scandinavian country, falling just 1 percent short of 2019’s record.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Joint Packard and Walton Family Foundation report identifies five key seafood sustainability focus areas

January 4, 2021 — A new report from the Packard and Walton Family Foundations has identified five key areas of focus that the seafood industry would need to build upon to develop demand in emerging sustainability markets in Latin America and Asia, Walton Family Foundation (WFF) Senior Program Officer Teresa Ish said during the Latin American Summit for Fishing and Aquaculture Sustainability.

Ish – who manages grants for WFF’s Environment Program, which leverages the power of the supply chain to advocate for more sustainable fisheries – was referring to the new report, “The Strategy Behind Sustainable Seafood Philanthropy – A Briefing for Industry from the Packard and Walton Family Foundations,” which was a joint evaluation of the two foundations’ Global Seafood Markets strategies. The report reviews the progress made over the past twenty years in the global sustainable seafood movement, and identifies the challenges that lie ahead.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

High Court Finds Aquaculture Worker Covered by Workers’ Comp

December 31, 2020 — An aquaculture worker who got hurt tending to salmon raised in offshore pens is covered under state law, but not under the federal law that defines some of the rights for mariners, Maine‘s supreme court ruled.

The court ruled unanimously on Tuesday in a Workers’ Compensation Board appellate division decision involving a woman who was injured while working for Cooke Aquaculture’s salmon operation off the coast of Eastport.

The woman, Darla Potter, slipped and hurt her knee while caring for salmon, which were raised in cages located less than a mile offshore.

Great Falls Insurance Company contended that the Workers’ Compensation Board lacked jurisdiction because Potter should be considered to be a “seaman” under federal admiralty law known as the Jones Act.

The Supreme Judicial Court said the closest analogy to an aquaculture operation is an offshore oil platform, and it noted that oil platform workers have never been found to fall under the Jones Act jurisdiction.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

Philippines approves USD 10 million COVID-related stimulus for aquaculture sector

December 28, 2020 — The Philippines Department of Agriculture has allocated an additional budget of PHP 500 million (USD 10.4 million, EUR 8.5 million) to assist the country’s aquaculture sector in overcoming difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The stimulus package will support farming of certain fish and aquatic species such as glass eels, sea urchins, and seaweeds, as well as provide funds for construction of multi-species hatcheries in the country, according to a report from The Philippine Star.

Read the full story at Seafood Source